Opinion
Posted inOpinion

Animal cruelty at Mt. B is no joke

As a resident of Bend and a loyal skier at your mountain (I was a season pass holder from 1999-2006 and I still ski primarily
Intern

As a resident of Bend and a loyal skier at your mountain (I was a season pass holder from 1999-2006 and I still ski primarily at Mt. Bachelor), I find the promotion of animal cruelty in your 2008 pond skimming "championship" video clip to be outrageous (not to mention insipid given the lack of creativity of the participant you chose to highlight).

Posted inOpinion

Sen. Ron Wyden

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The word "unique" is the most overworked adjective in the advertising copywriter's lexicon, but in the case of Bend's Badlands area, it's justified.
The rugged 30,000-acre expanse just 20 miles northeast of town holds a combination of geological features, archaeological sites, wildlife and vegetation - including rare wildflowers and junipers that were growing before Columbus landed - that would be almost impossible to find anywhere else.
For more than a decade, the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) and other conservation groups have been trying to get the Badlands protected as wilderness by the federal government, but their efforts have been stymied in Congress. On Tuesday, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden announced that he's going to take another shot at it.
At a press conference sponsored by ONDA, Wyden said his wilderness bill will include the portion of the Badlands designated by the Bureau of Land Management as a Wilderness Study Area (WSA) plus several hundred additional acres. Creating the Oregon Badlands Wilderness, Wyden said, "will tell the world that Central Oregon is a place with an unbelievable menu of recreation, where you can ski in the morning on one side of town and enjoy the solitude of high desert wilderness in the afternoon on the other."

Posted inOpinion

The Triumph of Martketing: Senator Wide Stance update, city gets a new leader, more…

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Change…your slogan
Recently, House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner said that the GOP does not plan to alter the campaign slogan it recently unveiled, despite the fact that the party's slogan: "Change you deserve," is actually used to market Effexor, an anti-depressant drug.
"I think it's working out just fine," Boehner told Reuters.
It still remains unknown if the bright GOP mind that came up with this phrase plucked it from his or her medicine cabinet, but apparently the party is going to stick it out, despite the widespread humiliation that resulted from the slogan. But if that was the case, it's good that the slogan's author didn't reach for the Viagra and produce something like: Viva Republicans (If election results hurt the party for more than four years, call a doctor).

Posted inOpinion

The Shakeup at the Mountain

Intern

The team just had a lousy season. The fans are grumbling. Season ticket sales are down. What do you do?
The standard response if you're running a football team is to fire the coach. That's pretty much what Powdr Corp., which runs the Mt. Bachelor ski resort, did last week by firing General Manager Matt Janney plus three other members of the resort's top management.Things haven't been going smoothly at the mountain since Powdr took over. Complaints about lift breakdowns, inadequate grooming, poor food, early closures and high prices have multiplied. To some extent, these may be just the predictable gripes from locals who are angry because "their mountain" has been taken over by "outsiders" from Utah. But people who spend a lot of time skiing and snowboarding at Bachelor say there's considerable substance to them.
In the 2007-'08 season other ski resorts in Oregon broke all records for attendance, but Bachelor's ticket sales actually dropped 7%, in spite of one of the best snow years in history and aggressive marketing. Shortly after the disappointing numbers came out, Powdr announced it was firing Janney and the others.

Posted inOpinion

Fly It Right, Or Not At All

I have told myself I was going to write a Letter to the Editor to the Source one too many times without actually doing it.
Intern

I have told myself I was going to write a Letter to the Editor to the Source one too many times without actually doing it. Here goes, I will not rant:
Location: The Shell station at Greenwood and 27th Street on Memorial Day.

Posted inOpinion

Owners Give Dogs A Bad Name

I adopted a dog in 1997, the year I moved to Oregon. I’ve seen Bend change from an extremely dog-friendly town to an ambivalently dog-tolerant
Intern

I adopted a dog in 1997, the year I moved to Oregon. I've seen Bend change from an extremely dog-friendly town to an ambivalently dog-tolerant city.

Posted inOpinion

Respect the Badge

I would like to respond to the Name Withheld letter titled “Turn in Your Badge.” While I have never been a police officer, I have
Intern

I would like to respond to the Name Withheld letter titled "Turn in Your Badge." While I have never been a police officer, I have compassion for anyone who wants to be, or who may have chosen that profession.

Posted inOpinion

Don’t Sell Short Sales Short

I would like to comment on your article entitled “Selling the Market Short” in which the writer attempted to warn the public of the result
Intern

I would like to comment on your article entitled "Selling the Market Short" in which the writer attempted to warn the public of the result of selling their home via the Short Sale option. While I appreciate the media attempting to keep the public well informed, in this case it was your article that fell "short."
While your article is correct in stating that home owners can be, and most times are, sent a 1099 form in the amount of the "forgiven amount", it is also important to provide information about the Foreclosure Tax Relief Act of 2007 (H.R., 3507) that was passed in December, 2007, and was designed to allow forgiveness of the Federal income taxes that are due as a result of selling your house "short."
 
While I am in no way offering legal advice, and recommend that anyone who is considering a short sale consult with an attorney and tax accountant, I can say that the Act provides Federal tax relief for those who, during tax years 2007, 2008 and 2009, choose to short sale their primary residence and who receive a 1099 form for the difference in what they owe and what the bank accepted as payment. As of this date, there is no similar relief for investment properties or second homes, and is not applicable on a State tax level.

Posted inOpinion

Cat Scratch Fever

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Letter of the Week 
Jim Anderson (tSW 5/22) has a long list of reasons to be alarmed about the killing of indigenous animals by non-indigenous cats, but he ignores one very critical fact. Countless indigenous populations have been decimated not by cats, but by non-indigenous humans who have irreparably altered or destroyed their natural habitats, or just plain killed them off.

Posted inOpinion

Destination Resort Reforms

Eric Flowers

In the beginning - actually in 1969 - there was Sunriver, and a couple of years later there was Black Butte Ranch.
And Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch attracted thousands of tourists, and that created jobs and brought millions of dollars into Central Oregon, and that was very good.
And when the Oregon Legislature looked at Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch and all those tourist dollars it said: "We need to loosen up the state land use law to allow more places like Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch, because the economies of rural areas like Central Oregon are really hurting and they could help a lot."
And so a peculiar animal unique to Oregon - the "destination resort" - was created, and the legislature decreed that destination resorts could be located outside of urban areas in places that otherwise would be reserved for farms or forests.
But the destination resort loophole turned out to be wide enough to drive an 18-wheeler through, and as time went on "destination resorts" began to look less and less like resorts and more and more like expensive residential communities built around golf courses.

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